Page 737 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LIV]IA AND LIUDlNG

provide him with Taoist teachings, and by Tang Xuanzong (r. 712-56) during
the Kaiyuan period (713-41) to bring an end to the natural disasters that struck
in those years. In the final year of his reign, Xuanzong invited him again to
celebrate *jiao (Offering) rituals at court.
I Cantong qi that has come down to us. Liu's purpose, in fact, is to criticize
The Riyue xuanshu lun is a short work important in the history of Chinese
alchemy for two reasons. First, it contains the earliest *neidan reading of the

the contemporary *waidan interpretations of the scripture; he emphatically
states that the Cantong qi has nothing to do with the manipulation of natural
substances but rather describes the generation of the inner elixir. Second, the
Riyue xuanshu lun is one of the main sources for dating the present version of
the Cantong qi. In his discussion of this text, Liu quotes or alludes to about a
dozen passages from this text, all found in the received version. Incidentally,
his work also shows that the Cantong qi was already divided into three parts
by the middle of the eighth century.
The Riyue xuanshu lun is preserved in the Quan Tang wen ~ m Y. (Complete
Prose of the Tang; Zhonghua shuju repr. of the 1814 edition, 334.12a-21a) to-
gether with an undated memorial submitted to Xuanzong, and in an abridged
and inferior version in the *Daoshu (26.Ia-6b) under the title Riyue xuanshu
pian G fJ K:jjM~ (Folios on the Mysterious Pivot, the Sun and Moon).
Fabrizio PREGADIO

* neidan

liujia and liuding

six jia and six ding

The ten Celestial Stems and the twelve Earthly Branches (*ganzhi; see tables
8, 9, and 10) have been primarily used to mark sexagesimal cycles of days and
years. In addition, they have been connected with man tic functions based on
their relation to Yin and Yang and the Five Agents (*wuxing). Several possibili-
ties have resulted from this association, such as the methods for divining the
auspicious or inauspicious result of activities, averting disasters, and "hiding
oneself" (yinshen III ~); and the method of the Hidden Stem (dunjia jl)[ Ej3 ;
Schipper and Wang 1986, 198-2°4).
In particular, it was believed that one's fate was controlled by deities related
to the Stem and Branch of one's year of birth. These deities are variously
called "star lords of the sixty Stems and Branches" (liushi jiazi xingjun /\ +